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CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN
was great, the actress attempting nothing
novel or eccentric in her conception of
the character. The lines in the perform-
ance which have fastened themselves with
hooks of steel upon my inemory are the
four of Lady Macbeth's soliloquy near the
opening of the second scene of the third
act of the tragedy —
:
" Nought's had, all 's spent,
Where our desire is got without content
'T is safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy."
I never knew a voice so capable as
Miss Cushman's of saturation with an-
guish; and in no other text do I remem-
ber her equally to have used her gift in
this kind. The words were accompanied
by the wringing of her hands; and through
the first couplet, as she gave it, the listener
was made to gaze into the depths of a
soul, soon to enter the night of madness,
already enduring the torments of hell.
In the same scene, the affectionate solici-
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